The Therapy Zone



    The General - this is the second episode to feature Colin Gordon as No.2, although his other episode ‘A B and C,’ was in fact filmed later. The credit's give Joshua Adam as the writer, this being the pen name of Lewis Griefer. For the first time in the series the metal corridors, which lie beneath The Village, appear, as do the American style military guards, who return in later episodes. Also re-used is the Council Chamber from ‘Free For All.’ This was the basic interior set used to represent No.2's Operations Room, the Control Room and the Labour Exchange, plus the laboratory in ‘A B and C.’ Education was a newsworthy issue in the mid-sixties, with student sit-ins' being all the rage. However, the main thrust of the story was to give a warning about the danger of technology, when it is used for learning. If people are fed data which has not been arranged or edited, that will become fixed with the information and will have less freedom of thought, as their mental spectrum has been narrowed.

   The one thing about THEPRIS6NER is, that at the end of the series, you cannot go back and watch the series again and wonder if Six is going to escape The Village because you know what it's all about. Nor does the series begin again at the end, there's no vicious circle as with the original, only the possibility of doing it the right way, the possibility of making a better Village!

Drugs!

   Drugs feature large within the Prisoner series, be they simple sedatives, or experimental drugs like the one used by No.14 to enable her to get into No.6's dreams. Or be they Supermoprobermates used on No.50 in the episode It's Your Funeral, or Mytol used by No.86 in A Change of Mind. Or whether they be mind altering hallucinogens, Drugs form the basis of medical experimentation, and therapy in The Village. Even Fall Out is not free from drug related puns, as No.48 says "Thanks for the trip Dad." And as the President said to No.48 "Now you're High." But No.48 is on a downer, not an upper, as he replies "I'm low!"

  If the Observers are so good that they do see and hear everything as the heir presumptive No.2 told No.6 in ‘It's Your Funeral,’ then No.6 wouldn't have been allowed to get away with half the things he did. Like following No.14 to that laboratory somewhere in the woods in ‘A B and C.’ And when No.6 pours that drugged cup of tea into the flower pot, that would have been observed during 'A Change of Mind.' Also the fight between No.6 and Curtis in his cottage, the fact that No.6 took the false mole from Curtis' left wrist and placed it on his own, not to mention the fact that by using a short circuiting table lamp, and earthing himself to a gas pipe, No.6 was able to reverse the conditioning he underwent to make him left handed! What price Observers? No price at all it woiuld seem!

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